Consider the Mini 30. Do some research and see if it's reliable with military steel case ammo. If I was to get a Mini, it would be a 30. Much more practical in that caliber, particularly as a defensive carbine.

Which Mini-Gun you choose, depends mainly, on what you want out of the rifle.

If you want a varmint gun, a personal defense firearm around the house and maybe a rifle that can be used in a FIT-HIT-THE-SHAN situation, the Mini-14 will work in that scenario. Notice I didn't say it was better than the Mini-30, I just said it would work in that scenario, but not work the best.

If you do handload your ammunition, and If a handloader chooses a good selection of handloadable bullets, to match the scenario, the Mini-14 could work very well and extend the Mini-14's usefulness by much more.

For the Mini-14 the 69 gr bullets with sufficient loading (experimentation) work, may be one of the better bullets to use, to make the Mini-14 a better hunting rifle, for game up to deer size. If you do your part in bullet placement.

If you are looking for a light hunting rifle and a more serious defensive rifle, the Mini-30 is more adaptable for this scenario than the Mini-14.

For a Mini-30 with the .311 bore diameter barrel, I would choose bullets in the 123-126 weight range because they are just about all of the practical bullet weights available, in the .311 diameter, to load in 7.62X39 brass.

And again, spend range time experimenting with primers, powders and seating depths

If I were to rebarrel a Mini-30, I would rebarrel it with a barrel that had a .308 bore diameter, with a 1:9 twist rate barrel. Why? Because there is a greater selection of bullet weights for the .308 bore diameter.

In order to wring the most out of the Mini-guns, a shooter will just about have to get into handloading for his rifles.

However, you still need to become a real rifleman though. Don't fool, or delude yourself, every rifle owner owes it to himself, and his family, to become the very best rifleman he can.

Just banging away from the shooting bench, or the hood of a car, won't make a shooter into a rifleman. It takes training and practice. What are you going to do, if there isn't a bench to shoot from?

You will need to know how to properly use a sling.

Here is a good place to learn riflery for new shooters, and long time shooters:

It is my opinion that the Ruger Mini-Guns are more accurate than those who own and shoot them... That ought to stir some people up...!

I was at a shooting range last week. The guy setting next to me was loudly complaining about the accuracy of his Mini-14. He was so whiney, that he started to irritate me.

A break in the shooting was to be called, soon, and I asked him to get another set of targets. I had watched the way he was shooting, and he was terrible.

I asked him to set the targets up at 25 yards. He did and I then asked him to shoot me a three shot group. His group was way off to the right and about four inches in diameter.

I showed him how to adjust the scope sights to center the group. His group was still four inches or worse, but now it was centered.

I then showed him how to properly set at a bench, and how to shoot from the bench, by holding his rifle securely, and steadily.

I had him shoot another group, and wonder of wonders his 25 yard group was now around two inches in diameter. I then showed the guy how to squeeze and not jerk the trigger, or flinch, while holding the rifle steadily.

This time, to his surprise, his group dropped to just over one inch on the 25 yard target. Same shooter, same rifle and same CHEAP JUNKY ammo he was shooting.

There came another break and I had him move his target to fifty yards. Before I let him shoot, we went over what I had taught him, just to reinstill the lessons he had learned. Only this time, I loaded five rounds of my ammo into his magazine.

At fifty yards, his rifle shot a nicely centered, round, five shot group, that was about an inch in diameter. That would be a two inch group at 100 yards.

The guy effusively thanked me, for what I had taught him. I now have a new friend, and he likes his Mini-14 just fine. Why, because he knows the problem was his inexperience, and not the Mini's problem, that caused the big group size.

I didn't talk down to him and tell him his huge groups were his fault, because he was a crappy shooter. I worked with him to give him some lessons and experience he can build on.

Hey, young shooters should hang out with old shooters because old guys know stuff...!

I think the majority of the complaints about the Mini-Guns inaccuracy, stems from shooter inexperience, and CRAPPY, CHEAP, JUNK ammo. Every body ought to go to Project Appleseed and learn how to become a rifleman, regardless of their previous experience. http://www.appleseedinfo.org/

Bill

Quote:

Originally Posted by TLuker

I couldn't agree more. I would also add that even experienced shoots tend to treat their mini's different from their bolt actions and that results in poor accuracy, which they blame on the gun. You have to shoot different bullets in the mini to find out what it likes just like any other gun, but many shoot cheap bulk ammo in whatever grain and complain about the groups. You have to clean the barrel and remove copper fouling just like any other gun to get the best groups, but many rarely think about copper fouling in the mini. The groups are going to open up after the barrel gets hot on any gun, but many will blast through three 30 round mags and then shoot a large group.

I've just been amazed by how many experienced shooters who don't take short cuts with their bolt actions continuously take shortcuts with their mini and then complain about its accuracy?

All of those things make a difference. I bought my mini slightly used. The previous owner complained about the accuracy. The first thing I did was really clean the barrel and that alone cut my shot groups in half.

These are 2 of the best posts I have ever read in analyzing Ruger Mini 14 accuracy. In many cases it is the fault of the shooter and or ammunition, not the gun. Project Appleseed is an excellent way for a lot of these young shooters to actually learn how to shoot various rifles. I see far more bad habits being displayed on the range today, than I did 30 years ago. Most of it is simply lack of common knowledge on shooting a rifle. Rifle accuracy, much like automotive performance, has surpassed the customers ability who buy the product. Granted not everyone can possess the talent to drive like Michael Schumacher or shoot like David Tubb, but you can learn the same fundamentals they apply to their related craft. Appleseed teaches this successfully many times a year.

I have an older Mini 30 I bought used. I bought several different brands of ammo to try out. It was not doing too well in accuracy so I re torqued the gas block. That cut the group down quite a bit and shifted the POA 4" at 100 yards. Mobar cut it down some more. I removed the phony muzzle brake/flash hider and got to see how badly the bore was copper fouled. Serious cleaning and improvement in accuracy. Silver Bear works the best and Tulammo the worst. Tul was very inconsistent in the primer depth and I had a lot of light strikes. That did not happen on any of the other ammo I used including Win White, Hornady steel, Wolf and Silver Bear. With SB I am running about 2 MOA with a scope. I will try some hand loads When I accumulate enough brass to make it worthwhile.http://www.kygunco.com/products2.cfm/id/23968/name/ruger-mini-14-223-tactical-rifle

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Silver Bear works the best and Tulammo the worst. Tul was very inconsistent in the primer depth and I had a lot of light strikes. That did not happen on any of the other ammo I used including Win White, Hornady steel, Wolf and Silver Bear.

You are not the first person I've heard say this about Tula ammunition.

thanks for the info guys. ill prob stick with the 14 though, and although i do want to start handloading that will be further down the road. but it has been a desire of mine to learn the great skill of ammunition production

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